A Man Named Neville
by tobbishaih
Summary: Neville gets sorted into Slytherin. It covers his response, his Snape fear, his Grandmothers reaction and his First Year.
1. Chapter 1

A round-faced boy was saying 'Gran, I've lost my toad again.'

'Oh, _Neville,'_ an old woman sighed, 'how you manage anything is beyond me.'

Neville took a shaky breath to defend himself, but to no avail as his grandmother; the illustrious Augusta Longbottom, continued at a lower volume.

'Honestly, to think my son's son turned out like this, it's almost shameful.'

Neville realized immediately that he'd not been meant to hear that, but Augusta's hearing was diminishing along with what little self-esteem Neville had managed to scrounge up for today. It was, after all one of the most important days for his life; today he would be sorted into what would apparently equivalently be his family for the next seven years. He didn't hold much hope for the tradition of making friends on the train ride to Hogwarts; School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he'd never gotten the hang of it before today after all.

'Go on then,' scolded Augusta 'on the train. Now I expect weekly letters and _don't _let me hear of any misbehaving. Hopefully you'll scrape into Gryffindor, well? What are you waiting for? On the train!'

'But Gran, Trevor' protested Neville, and was again over road.

'Who?! The toad will be fine, never liked it anyway. Hurry, off. I'll see you for Christmas break and not a moment sooner.' With a clawed and aged spotted hand Augusta roughly pushed Neville in the direction of the train and proceeded to make shooing gestures until he was out of sight among the other students and family members rushing about on the platform. Neville gulped in some air and peered around him at ankle height whilst dragging his heavy trunk behind him. For a second he thought he saw a flash toad near a skinny, messy black-haired fellow but with both the Weasley twins orbiting the kid he didn't stand a chance of getting a closer look.

Neville stumbled into the train and with a huge heave yanked his trunk in after him. He bent over his trunk for a moment panting, until a loud voice from outside quite rudely set him scrambling out-of-the-way and off looking for a compartment to hide in. Neville picked up a few new bruises as he was shoved and stamped on; he stumbled to a halt at the end of the train and furtive peered through into the last compartment. Empty! With a grim little smile Neville struggled to get his trunk through the door way and slumped into one of the seats, what an ordeal. Catching his breath Neville rubbed at his burning eyes, he'd lost Trevor; the only friend he'd ever managed to make despite what Gran said about toads not counting. With a sniff that sounded pitiful to even his own ears, Neville dragged himself up out of the chair and pushed his trunk over to one side of the compartment; he'd never be able to put it away by himself, Neville made his way out of the compartment to find his friend.

Heart racing Neville avoided looking at the people he past, instead keeping his eyes pointed down looking for anything remotely toad-shaped. Shaking like a leaf he raised a fist to knock on the very first compartment; as the door slid open he was drowned in giggles, shouting, and whispers.

'Well?' snapped the girl who had opened the door, silence fell over the compartment and Neville was stabbed by the judgmental eyes of a sect of teenage girls.

Trying to breath, Neville felt like he had been punched in the stomach; they could see. They knew he was a failure as a wizard, an embarrassment to his family; they could see it all.

'What is it, baby squib?' the girl sneered, 'Lost?'

Swimming through their snide laughter, stuttering a million apologies for his existence, Neville managed to purvey his message. He couldn't leave his friend.

'A toad? A _toad?_ Is that got a dirty meaning? Get out of here you little perv!' shrieked the girl, soon joined by her fellows cackling.


	2. Chapter 2

With that kind of first encounter Neville was understandably terrified to knock on the next door, but slowly; with practice, he became slightly more confidant. This was only helped when he met Hermione Granger. His hand was still shaking as he lifted a fist to knock on the compartment door, when it was pulled open with excessive force.

'Hi!' panted the girl within, who twitched as she slumped into the nearest chair and slid halfway down it. 'Oh, um, hello,' Neville began 'I'm awfully sorry to bother you, but have you seen a toad?' Neville was shocked. He'd managed that entire thing without stuttering, he had even managed to sound proper whilst doing it!

'Well that was just rude,' scolded the girl, in what she hoped was a playful way 'you should introduce yourself before anything else. I'm Hermione Granger, how' do?' At this point she was lying in a slump on the ground, thrusting her hand in the air to be shook. 'Oh, ah, sorry. N-Neville, N-Neville L-Longbott-t-tom.' Neville was so ashamed, she thought he was improper and rude; and what's worse was that he hadn't introduced himself to any of the others, what a way to prove his Gran right. Despite his shame Neville couldn't help but ask 'W-What are you d-doing on the f-fl-fl, ground?'

Hermione's copious amounts of bushy hair supported her head as she swiveled it to face him, 'Hah,' she panted 'I may have eaten too much _sugar_.' With the way she said it, it was almost as if sugar was a bad thing, Neville knew it wasn't exactly good for you, and that too much made you excitable, but- oh. 'How much have you had,' he worried, crouching by her. Hermione did a strange little wiggling dance, lying on the floor it was hard to call it a dance 'One, whole Sugar Quill!' she crowed in disturbing delight. 'And, _and, _and, _I still have one left!_' she hissed happily. That said she leaped to her feet; knocking Neville on his back in the process, and lunged towards her trunk, climbing on the seats to do so. 'Wait!' cried Neville, heart bounding painfully in his chest at the thought of Hermione on _more _sugar 'Would-would you like to help me?' he implored from his spot slayed on the floor. Hermione paused in her frantic unlocking of her trunk and peered at him suspiciously, 'With what?'

'It's, um, it's a quest!' cried Neville, pulling himself up 'I've lost my toad and have been searching for him since the train left.' Hermione tilted her head to the side and crouched on the seat, 'A quest you say?' With that she leaped from the seat and landed in a dramatic pose 'Fear not; gentle maiden, I shall accept this quest and solve the Mystery of the Missing Toad!' halfway through this announcement she went from a courageous knight to a witting and clever; and a bit hunched over, detective eager for a case. To Neville though it was simply the sugar talking, 'Um, okay. But the thing is,' he hurried on and she went for the door 'you've got to pretend your normal, like you've not eaten any,' at this point he paused, purely for dramatic appeal '_sugar.'_

He hadn't expected it to work, he wasn't a good actor after all and couldn't lie to save his life; but she'd bought it. With terrifying speed she'd gone through every compartment on the train; maintaining her sugar-free façade, including the ones he'd already done. Now, 20 minutes later he was back in his compartment, he had his toad; 'I'll never lose you again Trevor!', and an exhausted Hermione. He'd been re-checking his compartment for Trevor when Hermione had entered with a dramatic flair and dumped Trevor on his head and slumped asleep in the opposite seat. Sugar-crash can do that to you. With a few minutes until they would have gotten to Hogsmead station Hermione had woken up and stammered her apologies, declared that he'd never have to see her again and ran off. Neville just hugged Trevor and hoped he'd see her again, he'd enjoyed pretending to have a friend.


End file.
